Lost in Lace exhibition, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Visited this excellent free exhibition in Birmingham today at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery where international artists have approached the essence of lace in new and radical ways. Unfortunately the exhibtion closes this Sunday 19th February but if you would like to see more details about the exhibits and artists visit the Lost in Lace website.

20:20 Print Exchange 2011

In September last year I took part in the 20:20 Print Exchange organised by Hotbedpress Printmakers Studio in Manchester. Above is my new print of the Doges Palace in Venice that I created especially for the exchange. If you would like to see more of the prints and printmakers that took part in the exchange please see the Flickr site here.

Below are some photos of my work in progress:

Clare Woods, The Unquiet Head, Hepworth Wakefield

At the end of October I took a slight detour in my journey home with the intention of seeing Clare Woods' latest exhibition The Unquiet Head at one of Yorkshire's newly opened art galleries The Wakefield Hepworth. The immense scale of Woods' work evokes the 'motif of rock formations found within the British Landscape' and allows the viewer to stand back and observe these 'canvases' in a similar way that the viewer would do outside. Woods responds to the subject just as modern British artists Graham Sutherland, Paul Nash and Barbara Hepworth have done before. However,Woods prefers these works to be 'directly related to sculpture':

Sections on these aluminium canvas appear to be painted as smaller scenes, creating psychologically resonating worlds within themselves and the larger whole appears to take on figurative organic forms:



Individual areas explore texture and colour:






The gallery itself is an impressive space with large windows enabling close up views of the surrounding old renovated buildings and rushing water of the river outside:

Clare Woods exhibition continues until Sunday 29th January 2012. Other exhibitions included some British landscape artists, paintings and drawings of Yorkshire and an ongoing exhibition exploring the processes of Barbara Hepworth at work:

Ditherington Flax Mill, Shrewsbury

In September my work was included in an exhibition at Ditherington Flax Mill near Shrewsbury. The mill ceased to be operative quite a while ago, however, it is open on Heritage Days run by English Heritage and it was on one of these days that I visited and photographed traces of its previous life. Here are some snippets of these research photos from my visit:

I am looking forward to exploring memories of Ditherington Flax Mill further and producing more work inspired by the site.

Lino Printing, Blind Embossing, Making Journals workshop at Birmingham Printmakers

If you would like to come and have a go at printing, blind embossing and making journals similar to the ones in the photo above or this post below and this one, this Saturday 19th November, please drop me a line at:
jacquidodds(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk

Lino Printing, Blind Embossing, Making Journals workshop - latest

This is the latest set of images from my recent workshop for The Cultural Sisters held at Birmingham Printmakers. Firstly we start off cutting the lino blocks and making some blind embossings. Then we get on with the printing and it is always a pleasure to see all the different ideas that everyone comes up with:

Even more exciting to see all the finished concertina journals:

Private View, Blue Gallery Shifnal

Wednesday was the Private View for the Christmas Exhibition at Blue Gallery in Shifnal in which some of my prints, cards and journals are being exhibited. I was very excited to be included as the gallery is a lovely space and is local to me. Above you can see my work in the space with that of other artists' work and below is a close up of my two prints:

My cards and printed Moleskine journals:

Snowdrop cards and Reflecting Winter & Spring cards with matching printed Moleskine journals:

Another view of my work alongside prints by my fellow Birmingham Printmaker Tim Southall:

Tim is a very talented printmaker and had one of his prints accepted in the RA Summer show this year. This lovely etching is called 'The Rivals':

Below are some beautiful vibrant and colourful paintings by artist Jan Park and further views of the exhibition. If you are near to Shifnal or passing by call into the gallery to see the exhibition and also have a cup of tea and cake in the cafe downstairs. The exhibition will be on until January: